Gathering Leaves

Fall Line Road Tour (18th C.)

The routes that emmigrants would have followed from Delaware to South Carolina and on into Georgia were the two roads known as the King's Highway and the Fall Line Road. Starting in New Castle, Delaware they would have followed the King's Highway down to Annapolis, Maryland. From there they would have gone to Alexandria, Virginia and then on to Fredericksburg where the Fall Line Road began. This road traversed southern Virginia and the Carolinas eventually reaching the Savannah River at Augusta, Georgia. Cities they would have passed through on the way were Richmond and Petersburg in Virginia, Warrenton and Raleigh in North Carolina, and Cheraw and Camden in South Carolina. One thing to note is that in the late 18th century travelers from the northern colonies to the southern colonies were most likely to have gone by ship rather than overland (For example from Philadelphia to Charleston) as traveling by ship was much faster and safer than travelling by road. The same was true in the 1850's for travelers to California who were most likely have gone from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific coast via the isthmus of Panama rather than trekking across the prairies and deserts via wagon trains.